


Distant Blue

by doseki



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Avian Au, Intersex, M/M, Mer!Lance, Monsterfucking, avian!Allura, avian!Coran, kinda sorta abo but not really, mer!Keith, mermaid au, really alternate universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:40:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25386943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doseki/pseuds/doseki
Summary: The war from the unknown alien enemy has devastated Earth. The nereids - the sentient ocean people - are dying off. The humans are trying to save them. The anemoi - the proud, ancient avian people - want to take them away to start over somewhere else.(This work contains Keith/Lance as the primary relationship.)
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 150





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kat_mandoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kat_mandoo/gifts).



> Huge thanks to [EssJay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thiskindalove) for beta reading this for me and not laughing at my first ever attempt at monsterfucking. XD
> 
> This work is a gift for [Nikko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kat_mandoo). Thanks for pumping up ego up enough to finally post my VLD stuff on AO3! <3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which we're introduced to the team overseeing project to save the nereids, and Hunk gets a preview of just how not-at-all-human the nereids are.

"Blue's been here for almost three months now," Takashi Shirogane told the two biologists. "He's pretty friendly, actually."

Pidge adjusted her glasses as she looked through the thick glass into the giant tank. The tank itself was one of the biggest the Garrison had. It even had a beach, if you went up a few floors. Beach to reef to kelp forest to dark blue depths. There were fish and mollusks and even a few turtles. The creature definitely had a blue tail, unless that was a trick of the water. It was curled up next to a reef, tail swishing in the sand. Eyes closed, head resting on its folded arms. Probably asleep. "Blue, huh?"

"Well, I'm not good with names, I'm afraid," Shiro admitted.

"I take it you named the other one Red," Hunk said with a chuckle, making a note on the tablet he was holding.

"You guess right." Shiro gave a sheepish laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. "He's been here almost five."

"I'm still amazed you found them at all," Pidge said, sounding impressed. "I suppose we're nowhere near introducing them back to the ocean?"

"If we could take them just anywhere warm, it wouldn't be an issue," Shiro said with a sigh. "Unfortunately, the war tore up their home bays, and we haven't found any others. They're either extinct or they've migrated somewhere off the charts. They need a specific environment, just as we do. We did the best we could with the tanks, but it's not the same."

"They're both males, right?" Pidge asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They're both the same sex, whatever they are. I suppose we fell into the bad habit of calling them male pronouns. They could both be female for all we know since we're still not positive about what we're seeing with their anatomy. Blue has a voice that definitely sounds male to the human ear, if on the young side. He wants to meet you two."

Hunk couldn't hide the delighted smile that crossed his lips. "They know we're here?"

"Of course," Shiro said with a smile. "Pidge, you probably know this, but Matt talks to them. He wanted them to get used to the idea of two strangers coming into their tanks. Said that you were experts in marine biology, and you were here to help them find homes. Red in particular was very excited about that."

Pidge felt her chest swell with pride at that. "Do you understand them, Shiro?"

Shiro looked surprised. "Of course. Didn't I say? No, I didn't. Matt's been teaching them English. Red is fairly fluent. Blue is...well he can at least get a message across."

"Blue sounds like a bad stereotype when he talks," Matt said suddenly from behind them. Hunk looked startled. Pidge could do the same thing. The Holts were clearly part of some underground shinobi clan. He was sure of it now.

"But I thought Blue was the more friendly one? He probably talks to you more then, right?" Hunk asked.

"He refers to himself in the third person," Matt said, nodding towards the sleeping creature. "Often forgets articles. Still, better than us trying to speak his language."

"Why's that?"

"Be prepared to cringe or just cover your ears, if you hear them speak. I've tried, but I can't get my voice to pitch the right way to do it," Matt said with a grin. "I know Pidge has been trying it, though. Those sound bites helping?"

"A lot," Pidge admitted. "I certainly wouldn't say I'm fluent. I haven't worked with them directly after all."

In Hunk's head, he wanted to call them mermaids, though he knew that technically, they could be mermen.

The proper term adopted was nereid, after the ancient Greek myth. Which to Hunk, still sounded odd. In mythology, nereids were only female. These two definitely looked more male. But their scientific name _ceratodonti sapiens_ was just a mouthful. It was a poor combination of trying to make them into lungfish that were sentient since they could breathe air as well as use their gills. It made no sense since their tails were nothing like a lungfish's tail.

They didn't look like fish anyway. They had humanoid features, but you wouldn't mistake them for humans either. They had arms, hands, even opposable thumbs, but their biceps had spines with webbing like fins when they were extended. They had spined dorsal fins along their lower back. They had tails, not legs. Spiny pectoral fins. They had photophores along their tails and their sides. Their tail fins reminded Hunk of a betta fish for movement and general shape, but they didn't look nearly so delicate. They had dangerous claws. Shark-like teeth, Hunk had been told. Their faces were humanoid. They had ears...sort of. Elongated, same color and shape as those spiny fins. Not unattractive, though, at least from the distance.

He watched as the one they called Red shot out of the kelp forest over to Blue and settled onto the sand next to him. He didn't curl up the way Blue was. It looked like he was just sitting next to him, and Hunk watched as the larger nereid put his hand to Blue's head. Stroked his hair.

"Does their hair grow?" Hunk asked.

"It does," Shiro affirmed.

"Blue's hair looks kind of short, then."

"Red has said back home that they use sharpened instruments made of filed bones or shark's teeth to trim things. Hair included. Their claws, their spines. They're very advanced people, really. They have writing and math and family units and spirituality and-"

"Matt, you're nerding out," Pidge said, playfully nudging him with her elbow. Matt grinned, watching the two biologists taking notes onto their tablets. "I'll give you what notes I have. You guys want the rest of the tour?"

"Yeah, absolutely," Pidge said, grinning at Hunk. "Ready?"

"Yeah." Hunk turned to follow the Holts and Shiro, but he paused, watching the two nereids again. Blue was stretching and waking up while Red nearby was swimming around in circles near the reef. He couldn't see clearly, as far away as they were, but couldn't miss the way Blue's head raised, eyes opening, looking straight at him.

Hunk felt himself go still. Not that he would startle Blue from here if he was used to humans. There was an adorable tilt of the head, and then rising and shooting through the water, so fast that Hunk stepped back, thinking he would smack into the glass.

Of course, the nereid didn't. He stopped and turned suddenly, going in circles as he looked through the glass at Hunk. His expression was a little guarded, but mostly curious. He opened his mouth and Hunk could very faintly hear a noise that made him think of whale song, except far wilder. He watched as Red did the same swift swim over to the glass, though he slowed and stayed still, only swishing movements from his tail keeping him steady.

Suddenly, all those literal hackles went up as the fins expanded. Red's face looked decidedly more animal-like than human when he bared those sharp teeth, and Blue frowned at him, shrinking away from him. Hunk was startled, to say the least, and he took a few steps back away from the glass.

Hunk should've read more on the nereids. His main focus was on their environment, to find them a home, not the actual inhabitants.

Well, he'd probably need to know more about them, too. After his aggressive display and Hunk doing nothing in return, Red's interest waned, and he swam away. Blue was circling again and watching Hunk with fascination. He made another one of those wild whale-song sounds that could faintly be heard through the glass and looked at him expectantly.

"Uh, hi." Hunk knew he couldn't be heard through the foot-thick glass, but he raised a hand in greeting. Blue seemed delighted, raised both his hands and waved, and actually grinned (grinned?!) too, though this time Hunk wasn't quite as shocked by the sudden rows of sharp teeth. Maybe because Blue didn't look like he would just as easily rip one of his limbs off.

"Hunk, c'mon, you're lagging behi- oh hey! Blue woke up. You wanna meet the people you're helping to find a home for?" Pidge asked.

"Yeah, sure!" Hunk said. May as well. He let Pidge drag him along after the others.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which the biologists meet the nereids up close and personal, and Hunk once again is reassured that no, these are not just humans with fish tails. Also, Pidge learned their language because of course she did.

Pidge and Hunk had been fitted for wetsuits several weeks before moving to the Garrison marine biology base. Hunk was suited up. Shiro was having some trouble getting his own on. Pidge was on the other side of the lockers, griping about putting in contacts.

Hunk had to resist the urge to offer to help. Shiro's struggle was no doubt due to his prosthetic arm. It seemed rude to just try, and Shiro seemed like the type to ask. Hunk felt he'd probably avoid the water for the rest of his life if he'd lost an arm.

Not Shiro. If anything, Shiro was more determined to clean up the oceans after. Medical technology had fitted him with the prosthetic that could be worn underwater. While he'd had it for two years at this point, he still got stiff and fumbled occasionally with things, like putting on a skintight wetsuit.

Hunk wondered if they'd need snorkels. He glanced over at Shiro, who finally managed to get suited up. "Think we need the whole kit?"

Shiro shook his head. "Not this time. Are you excited?"

"I guess. I feel kind of stupid. I mean, we're here literally to find these guys a home, and barely know anything about mer- nereids."

"That's because you've spent all your time researching what information was left on their old homes," Shiro said with a smile. "And similar areas."

Hunk frowned. "I still can't believe that the blast took out almost all those islands in the Pacific. I'm amazed anything survived."

Both of them went quiet. A shared moment of silence, remembering the horrors of the war. The blasts from space. The new giant gaping craters across the continents. Islands were simply gone. A huge chunk of Canada was now devastated ocean.

The nereids, already an endangered species, and one of the three sentient races left on Earth, gone because of the war. Save for the two in the Garrison tanks.

The anemoi - the winged ones, the other sentient race - had fared a little better. Still, they made themselves scarce from human society after the war. You could still see them occasionally wheeling across the sky.

Pidge walked around the lockers, eyes still a little watery from sudden contact lenses. She went to the door and shoved it open. "We'll find something. Just think. We have an incredible team now. With our combined knowledge, there's no way we can't. Plus whatever Matt does."

Matt was leaning against the wall just outside the locker room, his arms crossed. "Matt is a xenolinguist, thank you very much. And a computer programmer. How do you think we're gonna find anything if our current mapping system is so shoddy? That's where I come in."

Hunk chuckled. "You should be proud of that."

"I am," he said and grinned. "Dad does some of it, but he thinks too much about limitations. We gotta push beyond that. C'mon, this way to the beach."

They followed him down a hallway. The smell of the ocean permeated the air, and the humidity was getting higher every step they took down the hall. Matt looked perfectly at home as he led them past many doors on the way and pushed open the big double doors at the end.

Hunk's eyes widened as they walked through the doors from painfully sterile tile floors and perfectly clean walls and laboratory steel doors to-

The beach. He looked up. Yes, if you squinted, you could see the hexagons of the dome that made up the sky, but the lighting was such that it could be the actual sky. There was a sun, though not so strong that you couldn't look at it. The beach was sand and rock, even some seagrass, as it ran down to the water. The illusion was diminished the more you looked, though. The beach only sprawled to the sides a couple of hundred feet before it met the sky wall. The 'ocean' was much bigger, but even then, you could see where it abruptly ended. A giant circular tank under a simulated domed sky that changed with the time of day.

No wonder the Garrison had an entire base dedicated to it. And there were other tanks in the building too, as massive as it was, for the other creatures they were trying to save.

Incredible technology, but at such a great cost. The war was a sudden attack from space. Just as the space exploration sector of the Garrison was starting up in earnest. Aliens the people of Earth never saw. Their only clue was a single ship that was still embedded in the middle of the Sahara that had fallen from the sky. The planet was riddled with craters and landmasses permanently altered by blasts from inconceivable weapons.

The Garrison's space exploration team had rapidly turned into Earth's defense force. Doing what they could with the budding technology they were developing. No one knew what caused the attacks to suddenly stop, but they did. A little over three months of terror, and then a sudden withdrawal.

No one trusted it was over, not even eight years later. The defense force was a focus for the Garrison, but rebuilding the planet was their main objective. Where people would rebuild the cities and communities, the Garrison would do their best to rebuild the biomes that had been shattered and save the species that could be saved. The defense force comprised of those who went up in the single-fighter ships to monitor the space around Earth.

Hunk and Pidge had entertained the thought of joining the defense force, but what teen didn't? No, their interests in the oceans took hold and sunk its hooks into them. For Hunk, maybe it was growing up mere walking distance to the beach. Or that first trip to the aquarium. Or the books he read during free time at school. Or the pictures of nereids that were blurred and poor quality. For Pidge, it was natural to follow in her big brother and father's footsteps. She'd been raised on marine biology, on maritime analytics, on oceanography.

"Cover your ears," Matt said. Hunk wondered why, but he did so, noting that two crests were forming in the water and coming towards the beach rapidly.

Shiro and Pidge did too, just in time. One of the nereids broke the surface of the water and uttered sounds that would have temporarily deafened them. Red leaped out of the water and landed on one of the flat rocks on the shore with a resounding thump, using his arms to brace himself, leaving Hunk to wonder how they didn't break from the impact. Red was looking at Matt and Shiro with guarded curiosity.

"Shiro. These are the home finders?" His voice was male-sounding to Hunk's ears, though that didn't mean anything as far biology went. What was more impressive was how Red spoke the words clearly and easily, almost as if he were bilingual.

"That's the idea, anyway," Shiro said, jogging down to the rocks, gesturing at Hunk and Pidge. The second crest that had been speeding towards the beach was circling and sunk beneath the water. Blue, Hunk guessed. Maybe not quite ready to make their acquaintance yet. He joined Shiro and the Holts on the flat rocks. Out of the water, Red's tail was still definitely a rich ruby color that faded into black, though it looked darker than it did in the tank. He wasn't threatening now, all the spines flattened, and his teeth weren't bared, but he also looked like a nereid you didn't want to make angry. Something about his expression was vaguely predatory, so Hunk kept a few feet between them. He could see the same ruby red coloring along his ribs where his gills were, but they were closed tight since he was surfaced. "Red, this is Hunk and my little sister, Katie." Matt gestured at each as he named them.

"Pidge," she corrected, holding out her hand.

Red examined it curiously and then looked at Matt and Shiro for assistance.

"Oh, he's doing the hand-shaking thing. She prefers to be called Pidge."

Pidge nodded, and Red seemed satisfied by Matt's explanation. He grabbed Pidge by the arm and shook the whole thing, expression serious. "Pidge. Nice to meet you."

Pidge gave a startled laugh as Red let go of her arm. Red looked at Hunk expectantly. With great trepidation, Hunk held his hand out too. "Hunk."

"Hunk," Red repeated. He smiled carefully at him, keeping his lips closed, and took his arm too. Hunk was highly aware of those claws and could feel the absolute insane strength in Red's grip as he shook his arm. The nereid could easily snap him in half if he wanted to. But he didn't. His grip, while powerful, was positively gentle. He let go of Hunk's arm. "Welcome to Homebay. Please, cover your ears a moment."

Shiro nodded at everyone. Red waited until they all were covering their ears, and boomed out one of those piercing sounds again.

A few seconds later, Blue was leaping up to the beach in the same manner Red had, landing neatly next to him, spraying the humans with water as he did. Like Red, his tail was darker out of the water, a deep teal blue that faded into violet and even red in the artificial lighting from the dome-sky above.

Hunk could swear Blue was smirking at them. If he'd been human, he'd say Blue was showing off for them. "Blue meet new," he said, glancing between the two of them. When he took Hunk's arm, Hunk could feel that same insane strength Red had in his sinewy muscles. Blue shook it a few times, grinning with all those teeth. "Meeting you."

"Nice to meet you, too," Hunk guessed, trying to fill in the words Blue meant to convey. "I'm Hunk."

"Hunt," Blue said, not letting go of his arm.

"Hunk."

Blue wrinkled his nose. "Hunk." He made a slight hissing sound on the k.

"That's right," Hunk said happily. Hell, the fact that he could speak English was amazing, he shouldn't be nitpicky over a few consonants that took an effort to make.

Blue turned his attention to Pidge. Took her arm. Shook. "Meeting you."

Shiro smiled. "And it's my pleasure to meet you, Blue. Pidge."

"Pit."

"Pidge," Matt said, nudging Blue with his foot. "Don't get lazy." Blue snorted at Matt, letting go of Pidge's arm and turning his head away to stare over the water, thrusting out his lower lip. "Don't sulk either."

"Pidge," Blue said, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"That's right," Pidge said with a friendly smile. Blue seemed placated enough and stared blatantly at both of them again. Hunk did his best to ignore it. He did have to wonder why Red was so much more adept at their language than Blue. He was the newer of the two, but only by two months.

"They just got here today," Matt explained, gesturing as he spoke. "They won't really be able to work much until tomorrow, but I thought it was a good idea for them to meet you both today."

As Hunk watched Matt gesture, he realized they were purposeful movements, ones that took Blue's gaze away from staring at Pidge and Hunk, following what Matt was saying.

Matt was signing as he spoke.

Okay, that was something else to know. Damn, he didn't have his tablet to make a note about it though. "Will they swim with us?" Red asked though he was addressing both the biologists as he said it.

"Do you want us to?" Pidge asked, surprised.

Blue gave another one of those snorts and thumped his tail on the sand. "Why else here? Swim Blue, Red, yeah?"

There was a strange trilling noise, and Hunk realized it was Pidge. Blue looked less annoyed. He made the same type of noise back, making gestures and pointing at them both.

"Blue basically thinks it seems obvious that we would swim with them. I mean, we gotta get to know their environment to find them one that matches, right?" Pidge translated, her cheeks pink. "Wow, I, uh, thought my accent would be so bad it was undecipherable."

"That's amazing, Katie!" Matt said, unable to contain big brother pride. Pidge looked pleased - and why shouldn't she - as she looked at Hunk for confirmation.

"Well, yeah, but I thought we would just..." Hunk trailed off. No, that made total sense, now that he thought about it. "Never mind. I thought wrong."

Red smiled at this, his eyes not nearly as sharp as they'd been earlier, certainly not when he was posturing. "It's okay. Good to admit it. Don't carry those thoughts with you. They make you heavy."

"That's an idiom they use. Sinking. Not getting stuck," Shiro supplied.

"Yeah," Hunk agreed. "I think I get it." He smiled at both of them. "I'm really looking forward to working with you," he said earnestly. "I want to do whatever I can to help you out."

"We appreciate it," Red said with a nod. It was exaggerated, so Hunk guessed that was something he learned from Matt or Shiro.

"Pidge too?" Blue asked, staring at her.

"Me too," Pidge agreed with a smile.

"Swim now," Blue declared, and he started making his way off the rock down to the water.

Pidge and Hunk looked at Shiro and Matt questioningly. Shiro gave a little shrug. "You can if you want, but we've got the debriefing in less than thirty and then dinner."

"I'll go," Hunk said, following Blue down to the water.

"Hunk wait until Red's in there," Matt warned a little too late. As soon as Hunk was knee-deep in the water, Blue swam over to him, grabbed one of his legs, and pulled him down beneath the water.

At first, Hunk thought he was getting dunked, but as he realized Blue was dragging him deeper and further out, instinct told him to kick.

Maybe Blue was the dangerous one.

Hunk didn't kick, but he did jerk his leg, trying to get Blue to let go of him, forcing himself not to panic. Blue let him go after a few seconds, and Hunk kicked to the surface, sucking in air as soon his head broke the water. Before he could wonder if Blue would grab him again, he could see a flash of red and black streaking through the water beneath him, intercepting Blue before anything else happened.

A few moments later, both of them surfaced, Blue looking positively sheepish and Red looked annoyed but apologetic.

Maybe by showing that Hunk had a healthy dose of fear and respect for the nereid, Red didn't see him as a threat.

"Sorry, Hunk," Red said, giving Blue a Look. "Blue is...how do I say it. Not mature. He thinks it's always playtime. He likes to prank and joke."

"He's a brat?" Hunk suggested with a wry grin.

Red laughed. It was such an odd thing, to hear a nereid laugh. It wasn't a human sound at all, but it was unmistakably a laugh. "Yes. He's a brat."

"Just want swim," Blue said, not quite grasping the word brat, but he got the gist of what was being said. "Blue sorry take Hunk air."

"You're forgiven. Next time warn a guy. I can hold my breath a while, ya know."

"Oh? How long?" Red looked curious. Hunk saw that Shiro, Matt and Pidge were treading water near him. Pidge looked relieved and Shiro looked alarmed. Matt didn't seem to be concerned either way.

"Almost four minutes," Hunk said proudly. "Trained for it. I'm okay, Shiro."

"Good," Shiro said, though he was staring daggers at Blue.

Blue pouted, sinking into the water up to his eyes and blowing bubbles. Then he submerged completely, swimming away from them.

"I've determined Blue is a brat," Hunk said to Matt.

Matt laughed. "That's pretty accurate. We're not sure how old he is. Younger than Red, I'd say."

"Yes, by a bit," Red agreed. "He isn't mature, though. A brat, like Hunk says."

Hunk wanted to ask more about it, but Shiro was glancing at his watch. "We should probably go shower and get dressed before the debriefing. Tomorrow, Red?"

"We'll swim together after the moonset," Red agreed, and disappeared beneath the water without so much as a ripple.

The three swam back to shore, Hunk pushing his bangs out of his eyes when he clambered up onto the rocks. He'd need a headband or something for swimming if they weren't wearing goggles. Shiro put a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, really. He wasn't trying to drown me, I think he was just trying to play."

"We'll talk more about that in a bit," Matt said with something like a frown. "Better hit those showers and get dressed while we still have time."

Lance was sulking. He went to his usual spot in the kelp forests and sunk near the bottom, resting his chin on his folded arms

Keith joined him, sitting next to him and stroked his hair.

"I messed up, huh?" Lance asked.

"I don't think so," Keith replied. "You gotta be careful with humans though. I think you just surprised them. "

Lance was still moody. "He didn't kick like Shiro did. He was playing too."

"You still have to be careful," Keith said, patting Lance on the head. "I know you're bored, but you can't just grab the first new person you see to play with them."

Lance made a low rumbling noise. "You have Shiro and Matt. I'm just an extra barnacle."

"You're not," Keith said reassuringly. "And I don't have them, I just learned their language fast, that's all. You're learning it too."

Lance blew an annoyed bubble with spare air from his lungs, watching it wend its way up to the surface. "It's a stupid sounding language. It doesn't even make sense half the time."

Keith smiled. "It doesn't, but you have to give them a break. They're limited in their vocabulary."

"You told Hunk I'm not mature yet."

Keith had no response to that because it was true. That was one of the many things humans did that confused the nereids no end. Stating a blatantly opposing statement that was not factual. White lies, Matt called it.

"You hungry?"

Lance rolled over onto his back, using the sand and grit to scratch it as he rubbed against the ground. "I guess."

"Let's go hunt."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which the humans discuss the state of the world after the war, and the nereids blow off some steam. (Graphic monster sex depicted in this chapter.)

"Red was found beached on Miyako Island. To the south, here on Yoshino beach," Sam Holt said, pointing to the map on the holo display. "There was a body next to him of another nereid. Older. Doing a DNA test showed that they were immediate family. Possibly his older sibling or a parent. No other signs in the nearby water of the rest of the pod. They both had the same type of knife on their belts. Doing testing on the water showed the heightened saline content was poisoning them. My guess is the others, if they were in the area, died from it."  
  
The map disappeared and was replaced with another. "Blue was found in the shallows here in the bay near Varadero. He was alone. He only had a necklace and a bracelet for identification. The types of shells and sea glass found in his jewelry showed that his pod was local to the area. A few hundred yards out of the bay, the water has the same heightened saline concentration. Our theory is that he went into the shallows to heal from his injury, and his pod succumbed to the poisoning while he was recovering."  
  
"Question," Hunk interjected. "Can you elaborate on that? Healing from an injury? Why would he be alone?"  
  
"We don't know for sure. While Red is able to communicate with us, he doesn't seem inclined to share anything. Blue may well open up to us, but as you heard firsthand his language is limited for the time being. Shiro's theory is that if he was bleeding, he'd want to be away from the rest to reduce the chance of being scented in the water by bigger predators. Safer in the shallows for that. When we found him, he had a deep gash on his lower body. Missing scales, a tear in one of his pectoral fins. Not bleeding, so the injury wasn't new. Amazing recovery, though. You barely see the scar now, and the newer scales are blended in with the old." Sam looked up as the display changed to two side by side charts.  
  
"These are graphs showing previous records from the waters in both those areas, pH levels, temperature, saline concentration, oxygen levels, and the like." Sam waited a moment before adding two more charts. "Versus current day."  
  
Pidge gave a low whistle. "It's amazing anything has survived in the oceans," she said.  
  
"A lot hasn't," Shiro said quietly. "We've done tests all over. The results are... not encouraging."  
  
"That said, there are some areas that are thriving," Matt said helpfully as the display changed again. "In the Peruvian Pacific, we've seen some coral growth and even fast adaptation and signs of evolution. In simpler life forms, but it's still a start."  
  
Hunk tapped his stylus against his tablet. "Nereids aren't simple."  
  
"No," Matt agreed.  
  
"And the species may end with them?"  
  
"We're still not sure about that," Shiro said.  
  
Pidge looked confused. "I thought they were both the same sex."  
  
"They have the same anatomy, but they mate fairly frequently." Shiro's face turned slightly red as he said it. "They may well be intersex. Or homosexual. We really just don't know enough about them."  
  
"Maybe that's what Red was saying about Blue not being mature," Hunk said thoughtfully. "Not ready for reproduction."  
  
"Possibly. He's never mentioned that before. Nice job, Hunk. Getting new information." Matt smiled and Hunk was pleased, making another note on his tablet.  
  
"The one you found with Red," Pidge said. "Same anatomy?"  
  
Matt cleared his throat. "Uh. Red wouldn't let us do an autopsy. He ripped off Shiro's arm and dragged the body out to the ocean after the first blood draw."  
  
Hunk stared. "He _what_?"  
  
Shiro sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't think he knew his strength. He's the one who staunched the blood flow. I probably would've died on the beach too if not for him."  
  
Pidge's voice rose several decibels. "He ripped off your arm!"  
  
"They're not human, Pidge," Shiro said firmly. "Just because they're sentient doesn't mean the same rules apply. I have a healthy respect for Red. He gives me a wide berth and I do the same for him. I don't want to see his species die out just because he was defending himself and I got caught in the crossfire."  
  
No one at the table spoke for a few moments. Hunk certainly had a healthy respect for Red after his initial display and feeling that strength in his arms. He was well aware of how easily Red could've ripped his arm off. He looked at Shiro. Shiro didn't seem angry or upset about it. Maybe he'd gone through that already. Now, he just wanted to save the species.  
  
Not human. Just as the anemoi weren't. Hunk wouldn't forget that.  
  
"Are we ready to move along?" Shiro asked, glancing around the table.  
  
"Yeah," Hunk said. "Go ahead."  
  
"So as far as the species ending, we're not sure yet," Sam said without missing a beat. "That's why we must try to find where the others are if we can. And an environment where they thrive. That's where you come in."  
  
"No pressure," Matt said lightly.  
  
  
  
  
Keith absently pulled a bone out of his teeth. Lance was still snatching little fish here and there, swallowing them whole. Hunting in this enclosure was too easy. Keith didn't like it. Made him feel like his skills were getting rusty. Lance didn't seem to mind. He was content being able to eat his fill without expending so much effort.  
  
"Lance, come here."  
  
Lance glanced at Keith, swallowing another fish. "Mmm?"  
  
"Here."  
  
Keith was holding his arms open.  
  
Lance looked at him warily. Keith had displayed earlier, trying to scare off the rock crawler called Hunk. He was subvocalizing nonstop after that. He didn't like how Lance was trying to play with him. It made him possessive and irrational, even though he was the one giving a calm, reassuring demeanor.  
  
Keith was the one they should be afraid of. Lance was just playing. He had no intention of hurting them. Lance turned away from him and swam a bit. Keith was stuck in his aggressive stance and wanted to reinforce his claim on Lance.  
  
"Not interested right now."  
  
" _Lance._ "  
  
"Not. Interested," Lance said with a huff, and sped away from him, heading for the shallows to rest after his meal.  
  
He knew it wouldn't deter Keith. But it would give him a few moments to ready himself.  
  
Like clockwork, Keith was after him in a few moments, spines raised and that oscillating rumble from his throat getting louder. His mouth was open as he caught up with Lance, snatching his arms and pinning Lance against him. Biting down hard on his shoulder, teeth sinking in. Lance thrashed a little, feeling Keith's tail wrap around his own and holding him still as they sank to the bottom. He felt his body getting hot as Keith continued to bite until Lance acquiesced, his eyes half closing. "Keith."  
  
"Got you," Keith said, nuzzling the bite, tail tightening around Lance's.  
  
"Still yours," Lance managed, still thrashing a little, as Keith bit the other shoulder.  
  
"Only mine." Keith punctuated it by drawing blood. Lance uttered an almost inaudible cry, blunted further by the water as Keith bit him into submission, teeth grazing along his skin.  
  
Lance tried to twist around in Keith's grip, his head bowing forward as Keith clamped down on the back of his neck, pulling at the skin. " _Keith_."  
  
Keith didn't respond. He let go of the back of Lance's neck, licking up the thin jets of blood streaming into the water. He nuzzled the side of his neck, mouthing over it, feeling Lance starting to go slack in his grip. "Mine." He bit a fresh mark where Lance's neck met his shoulder. He could feel Lance's body heat rising even more. Almost ready. He sucked at Lance's skin, listening to those soft undulating sounds he was making in his throat, growling deep in his chest. "Mine." He released his grip on Lance, only keeping their tails intertwined.  
  
Lance managed to wriggle around, so they were facing each other. He wrapped his arms around Keith, pressing up against him. Licking at his lips, nipping them, and making little wanting noises. "Have me."  
  
"Not yet."  
  
Lance kept nipping and licking at Keith's lips, sliding his tongue between them. Stroking his tongue against Keith's, fingers catching in Keith's raven locks, and tugging a little as he trilled softly into his mouth. Their lips met, and Keith's tongue slid into Lance's mouth, running over the sharp points of his teeth, against the roof of his mouth and against his tongue. He trilled back, wrapping his arms around Lance's waist, their tails unwinding.  
  
Lance tightened his arms around Keith, as they shot through the water, up, up, breaking the surface and landing heavily on the flat rocks above the reefs with the impact that would've shattered human bones beyond recognition. For Lance, it merely knocked the proverbial wind out of him, and he was too busy twining his tail around Keith's as he settled heavily on top of him. The roughness of the rocks felt good against Lance's back, as he wriggled against them, dragging his claws along Keith's sides and then up his back.  
  
Sometimes they went up to the beach, but Keith wasn't patient enough to swim them that far. Lance continued to scratch and scrape Keith's skin, mouthing over his throat with his teeth barely scraping him while Keith shuddered against Lance, his gaze positively predatory as he looked down at him.  
  
"Mine," Keith growled, tightening his grip around Lance's tail with his own and raising his hips a little as his cock started to snake its way out of its pelvic slit.  
  
Lance gave a soft trill as he felt the heat of it, the prehensile organ stroking against his scales, seeking Lance's opening. He raised his hips up to meet Keith's, looking him in the eyes as Keith guided them together. Lance jolted a little when he felt Keith's cock working its way into him, his own wending its way out above it, curling around Keith's as he sunk deeper into him.  
  
Keith gave a shuddering sigh at the wet, tight heat that was Lance, the way his cock curled around his and tightened as Keith bottomed out as deep as he could inside him.  
  
 _Keith._ It was subvocalized, but Keith could hear him loud and clear, and they both started to move. It was less a snap of the hips and more grinding against each other, letting their prehensile cocks do most of the work while they clawed each other and bit hungrily, occasionally drawing blood with sharper scratches and deeper bites. Slow and steady at first, with loud, wet slick noises punctuated the air beneath growls and trills and occasional cries. Then faster, more frenzied and frantic, tails slapping water and Lance getting louder as Keith got quieter. Lance dragged his claws up Keith's back, digging deeper with every thrust and grind, finally tilting his head back as he began to see white and his body became impossibly hot.  
  
Keith didn't bite down on Lance's throat but instead pressed his open mouth against it as Lance's heat intensified, inside and out, and he gave a deep guttural cry as he started to spill into Lance, feeling how Lance's walls tightened with it, squeezing around him and holding him deep inside. Lance's claws had sunk deep into Keith's shoulder blades as he held Keith against him, uttering one of those deafening high pitched cries as he came, getting impossibly tighter around Keith, his own cock's grip around Keith's releasing as come sprayed across their bellies and hips. Keith groaned, licking Lance's throat as he continued to empty himself inside of Lance, stilling himself when he was spent.  
  
Their eyes met, and they licked into each other's mouths as their cocks retracted. "Mine," Keith murmured, as he relaxed his grip on Lance's tail. "Mine."  
  
"All yours," Lance agreed, stroking over the deep claw marks he'd left in Keith's back. "Just yours."  
  
Keith nosed over one of the deeper bite marks he'd left on Lance's shoulders. His sense of smell out of the water wasn't nearly as good, but he was pleased with the scent of Lance's blood mixing with his saliva. He shifted and began to lick over all his bites to staunch the bleeding, listening to Lance make soft, relaxed trills as he did. He shifted and worked his way down Lance's belly, mouthing and licking up Lance's come while Lance lazily stretched and playfully slapped his tail against the water. Keith was half in the water by the time he got to Lance's slit, and lapped over it, tongue sliding in and tasting himself there.  
  
"Nnh." Lance made a sound of appreciation, but before he could try to coax Keith to continue, he was pushing Lance onto his side, watching as his come dribbled out of him. Smiling, Keith scooted back up onto the rock and got behind Lance, licking the bites there, feeling Lance's muscles tense and then relax with each soothing lick.  
  
When he was done, Lance sat up and did the same in return, pressing open-mouthed kisses and licks to Keith's claw marks and where Lance had bitten him. There were no predators in the water to scent them, so there was no reason for them to clean each other's wounds. Keith didn't care, and neither did Lance. Saltwater was much less pleasant than your mate's tongue, and Keith felt the ritual was far more important than the necessity of it. He gave a soft sigh as Lance gave extra attention to one of the deeper bites he'd given Keith on his collarbone, reaching up to stroke his fingers through his brown locks as he did. "Perfect mate."  
  
Lance lingered on a particularly slow lick, and pressed his mouth to Keith's skin before pulling away and looking into Keith's eyes. They didn't say anything, just looking at each other, Lance's expression softening.  
  
"Will we make a pup soon?"  
  
Keith gave Lance's hair one last stroke, and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him down with him so they could lie on the rocks together. "Not yet," Keith said. "Not here. It's not right here."  
  
"Not a real homebay," Lance agreed, his forehead pressing against Keith's. "I don't like it here."  
  
"I know you don't," Keith murmured, stroking Lance's side soothingly. "I don't either."  
  
"There's no soul to the moon. The stars don't sing. The sun isn't warm. There is no sport in the hunt. Those rock crawlers watching our every move."  
  
"They're trying to find us a home."  
  
Lance turned his head to the side to look up at the domed sky above. "Fake moon. Fake stars. Fake home."  
  
"Lance."  
  
Lance sighed, looking at Keith again. "What if they can't find a home? How can they? The ocean is tainted from the rock crawlers and the menace from above the sky."  
  
"Not all of it.  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
Keith nibbled the tip of Lance's nose, making him laugh a little. "I don't know, but I won't believe that until the People of the Skies tell me so. We have to keep singing to them."  
  
"Can they even hear us in here?" Lance asked bitterly. "I sing to them and I don't hear anything. Maybe they're gone too."  
  
"They hear us," Keith said firmly. "No rock crawler structure can block the song. Listen for it. It's soft, but you can hear them too."  
  
Lance was quiet for a while. He closed his eyes, shrinking in on himself. "It wouldn't be fair to bring a pup into this world." His voice was soft as he snuggled closer to Keith. "Fake world."  
  
They lay like that on the rock for a while, beneath the fake moon and stars, until their skin began to itch and their bodily fluids were flaking off them. They slipped off the rock and into the water.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which we're introduced to the anemoi, and Allura doesn't have time this shit.

Luka was the leader of the scouts. She directly reported to Allura after every mission. At least she did that _first_ these days. Allura had more than once been greeted by Luka and her scouts, their faces and claws bloody from a run-in with the rock crawlers. The act itself didn't bother Allura. The need for migrating away from a particular human settlement - especially bigger cities - did. There were so few places left to roost after the menace from the sky had blasted the world, and Allura didn't want to go searching yet again because her scouts couldn't contain their bloodlust.  
  
"Bones were found on the beaches," Luka reported, folding her wings behind her as she perched on the rock shelf next to Allura. "About a varga south of here. More of our ocean brethren dead to the poisoned waters." She handed one of the bones she'd stored in the pouch she wore at her hip to Allura.  
  
Allura took it, bared her long fangs and bit into it, tasting and smelling at the same time. She frowned, turning it over in her clawed hands. "How many?"  
  
"We found remnants of the whole pod, minus their youngest. Lance," Luka said. "Tavo said he spotted him a little over three moon cycles ago in a bay nearby. Injured and poisoned. He is no longer there." Luka paused. "There were rock crawlers there, putting water in clear cylinders, using those outdoor shelters."  
  
Allura was not a fan of talking to the rock crawlers. But she was not about to let Luka engage with them.  
  
Luka would've happily clawed the faces off of the rock crawlers as soon as look at them. Allura's patience with them was thin enough, so Coran agreed to go with her, in case her temper got the better of her.  
  
The Alteans - those the rock crawlers called anemoi - were a proud, ancient race. The people of the skies, winged, taloned, carnivorous. Most of the time they left the rock crawlers alone. They were of little interest to them. The ocean dwellers were another matter. It was accepted by both people of the air and the water that they were once the same. They shared the same subvocal language, they sang the same songs, they could speak to the planet and the stars in the heavens. They lived much longer than the short blips of existence the rock crawlers did.  
  
It hurt Allura's heart deeply every time she found out more of her dear friends of thousands of years were dying in the grip of the poisoned oceans and there was nothing she could do to stop it. At least not yet.  
  
"We may well have to find a new home beyond the stars," Coran had told her gently one night. She'd howled herself hoarse in her grief, and she'd numbly nodded, agreeing this may be so.  
  
Right now, she wanted to find out what happened to Lance and his pod.  
  
Their caves were not far from where Lance's pod lived. _Had lived_ , Allura reminded herself. Only an hour or so north. She and Coran flew in silence, Allura scanning the oceans below. It was so strange not to hear the songs being sung constantly beneath the waters. The sun was starting to make its descent in the west when they reached the curved bay where Lance had been found. Allura landed lightly on the beach, smack dab in the middle of the rock crawler's encampment, folding her shimmering white wings behind her. Coran followed suit, glancing at the shocked crawlers' expressions.  
  
They looked terrified. He approached one of them - a young woman who had her dark hair pulled up in a ponytail and glasses half slipping down her face. "Are you the leader?" he asked.  
  
"N-no." She pointed at a young man with short brown hair, who was holding onto a sample container so tight his knuckles were white.  
  
"You, leader," Coran said, not unkindly. "The _ukaon-khyrd_ who was here. Where is he?"  
  
The man looked at him blankly. "The...the what?"  
  
"The-" Coran paused. "The ocean dweller. The sentient one. We know he was here recently."  
  
"The nereid?" the young woman offered tentatively. She was pulling a device out of one of her pockets and swiping at it. She held it up. "This one?"  
  
Allura strode over to her and grabbed the device out of her hand and looked at it, her expression softening momentarily. Then she stared at the young man, thrusting the device back at the woman. "That one. Where is he?"  
  
"Griffin, just tell her," the woman said, shaking a little as she slipped the device back into her pocket.  
  
"The Garrison," the man - Griffin - managed.  
  
Allura's eyes narrowed. "Tell me where he is, or I'll disembowel you right here and eat your entrails while you're still alive to see it."  
  
"Um, he was taken to a place in the desert northwest on the big continent," another young man said, coming out of the shelter. "I could show you on a map. Would that help?"  
  
Allura regarded the man thoughtfully. She heard the woman tell him to be careful and addressed him as Kinkade. "Kinkade, you will show me where he is," Allura agreed with a nod.  
  
"Okay," Kinkade got up, and he was holding a larger device, not unlike the one the woman had earlier with Lance's likeness on the screen. He was tapping on it and bringing up an image. Lines and colors that made no sense to Allura. After a few more taps, the image changed into something more familiar, greens and browns and blues of the landmasses that could be seen from the air. "How far does your cast migrate?"  
  
"We have been all over the world," Coran said, also looking at the device. "We know where this is."  
  
"Right. So, here," Kinkade tapped on the screen and the image grew bigger and cleared. It showed a huge crawler base from the sky with many buildings, but you could see the surrounding landscape too, including the deep canyon that cut through the land nearby. "He was taken here."  
  
"You would take an _ukaon-khyrd_ to the desert?" Allura said, her voice low and dangerous.  
  
"There's a tank there. A small, temporary ocean," the woman said carefully. "To keep them alive." The one called Griffin uttered a quiet 'Rizavi, no!' but Allura ignored him.  
  
"Rizavi," Allura said, addressing her. "Them? Are there more?"  
  
Rizavi adjusted her glasses. "There are two. One of them is from...uh. Japan. I don't know how to describe where that is. Kinkade?"  
  
Kinkade nodded and tapped at the device, now showing the seahorse-shaped island nation to the two avian people. "Here."  
  
"Marmora pod?" Coran guessed, looking at Allura. Allura's eyes flashed in momentary anger - _not them too._  
  
"Do you have a likeness on your device?" she asked Rizavi.  
  
Rizavi was already on it, fingers busy swiping and tapping at her screen. "This one. He's there."  
  
"Keith," Coran said, and Allura nodded. "How many others are there?" Coran asked quietly.  
  
"Just those two right now," Rizavi said with a frown. "We're-"  
  
She didn't finish her thought as the two Alteans took flight, leaving the human encampment as suddenly as they came.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which Lance starts to open up to Hunk and Keith warns him why he shouldn't.

Blue was always interested in the tests the scientists did. He'd lounge in the shallows and watch them with their little devices and their clear tubes of water.  
  
"What do small water, Hunk?" Blue asked as Hunk dipped a stick into the test tube.  
  
"Comparing what you guys have here in Homebay with samples from various places all over the world," Hunk said. He held up the test tube. "This is from near a place called Fiji. I'd ask if you know where that is, but I don't know what you call it."  
  
"Tell Blue stars, maybe can help?"  
  
"Hooboy," Hunk said with a nervous laugh. "I've spent my whole life looking into the ocean. I barely know the regular constellations. I suppose they'd be the same as what I saw at home - Fiji and Samoa are close enough." He looked thoughtful. "Maybe I can find a star chart, would that help?"  
  
Blue nodded with a smile. "Stars help."  
  
"Okay," Hunk agreed. "Let me just finish what I'm doing, and I'll go find one. Cool to hang out until then?"  
  
"Cool," Blue said confidently.  
  
Hunk grinned. "Yeah, that's right."  
  
Pidge and Matt were up on the beach. They'd set up a giant blanket with all their (waterproofed) equipment. Pidge was busy typing something into a database, and Matt was adjusting the bass off a recording he'd made of the nereids' underwater singing. "Blue picks up slang faster than Red did," Matt commented as he pressed a headphone to his ear to listen to the recording.  
  
"Makes sense if he's younger." Pidge continued her database entry. "I mean, if nereid brains are anything like ours."  
  
"If we could get a decent scan of them, we'd know. I think Blue would be willing if we could explain it clearly to him."  
  
Pidge stopped typing for a moment. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that? I can try asking him."  
  
Matt paused the playback on his recording. "I've tried, Katie. I'm lucky Red didn't rip _my_ arm off."  
  
"I'd ask _Blue_ ," Pidge said impatiently.  
  
"I _did_ ask Blue," Matt said, setting his headphones down. "Red hissed at me and started displaying. I got right the fuck away from him, I can tell you that much."  
  
"Well, I'll try anyway. _From a distance,_ " Pidge added at Matt's expression.  
  
On the lower level of the tank, Shiro was watching Red hunt and recording what he saw. Thus far, the nereid diet wasn't unlike a dolphin or shark. Opportunistic, eat whatever's available. They seemed to leave the turtles alone, but all the fish and crustaceans were fair game. Herring were easy to catch, and he was eating them two and three at a time. Even so, Red didn't seem particularly enthusiastic about his fare.  
  
Shiro frowned. It was a shame, really. A lot of fish had gone extinct after the war. Some more resilient species powered through, and the endangered ones were being bred and kept in the Garrison tanks. Some of these were offered as feed to the nereids. Maybe their favorite food was gone, like so many other things. Red noticed Shiro watching him, and paused from his hunting. He swam over to the glass, uttering one of those deafening noises, thankfully muted by the water.  
  
Shiro glanced up and pointed to the ceiling. Red glanced upwards too, and shot off.  
  
Shiro saved his work and headed to the elevator. Thankfully, the four scientists had taken to wearing wetsuits most of the day once it had been established that going in and out of the water was going to be the norm while working with the Nereids. He got blasted with the humidity when he went through the doors to Homebay, and saw Red already on the beach, waiting for him.  
  
"It's about food," Shiro said. "I see you both eat, but it's like...well, you eat it because you have to eat, but not because you want it?"  
  
"Food is scarce. We understand that," Red said. "We saw it before you brought us here."  
  
"I know," Shiro said with a sigh. "Unfortunately, we just don't know enough about you to bring you your preferred diet, unless you can tell us."  
  
"You want to put a needle into me," Red said, his voice flat.  
  
"No, nothing like that," Shiro said calmly, though he took a few steps away from Red, just to be on the safe side. "I was thinking if I brought pictures of fish, you should show me what you like."  
  
Red considered this. "Yes. You can bring images of food. Don't show Blue. Just me. I know that food is scarce. He might-" Red paused, trying to find the words. "-get too excited and then be disappointed."  
  
"Understood. I'll bring pictures of what we have available."  
  
There was a loud trilling noise, and they both glanced over at Blue. Blue slapped his tail in the water excitedly as Hunk showed him a picture of the western Polynesian night sky on one of the tablets. "Yes! Blue swims there. Hunk small water there?" Red immediately went over to the two of them, and Shiro followed at a distance. Blue eagerly pointed at the tablet. "Red! _Burenasyo_ stars."  
  
Red looked at the image and then nodded.  
  
Blue slapped his tail into the water again - something the humans were starting to recognize as a display of happiness. "Pods converge _Burenasyo._ "  
  
Shiro and Hunk both looked surprised. "The pods converge? Like, a big meet up?" Hunk asked.  
  
"Yep! Blue pod meet Red pod there," Blue said happily. "First time meet."  
  
"So you two knew each other before you came here," Shiro mused.  
  
Blue nodded. "Sing same song."  
  
Hunk wanted to find out more about this convergence, but Red grabbed Blue and dragged him under the water before he could ask. He frowned, looking a bit abandoned. "Well, I guess we can only push so much in one day. What were you and Red talking about?"  
  
Shiro was frowning too. "Food. I've noticed that they don't seem particularly excited about the fish we put in their tank."  
  
Hunk brightened. "So show them pictures of fish we've got here. Maybe see if they like one of those. Pictures help a lot when language is a barrier. And food? Right there with you, man. It'd probably improve Red's mood a lot if he was eating something he enjoyed."  
  
Shiro chuckled as they headed out of Homebay for the labs. "I'm not sure much of anything can improve Red's mood besides getting him back into the open ocean, but we'll see."

  
  
Lance made a frustrated noise at Keith and jerked his arm out of his grip. "Why do you always get so paranoid about me talking to them? It's not like the understand anything I say."  
  
"The less they know, the better," Keith snapped. "Did you see how surprised they were that we knew each other?"  
  
"What's wrong with that?"  
  
Keith growled.  
  
Lance sighed. "Fine, I won't say anything else about it. I don't understand what's wrong with sharing things with them, they can't breathe underwater anyway."  
  
"You're not old enough to remember much before the menace from above the sky. I remember it. Rockcrawlers think the planet is theirs. They killed tens of thousands of our people. With their nets, their boats, with their poisons. That's why we avoided them."  
  
"Oh." Lance looked sad. "But I don't think that these rock crawlers are like that."  
  
"It doesn't matter."  
  
"It does," Lance argued. "Keith, these four are finding us a _home._ They'll know exactly where we are. If I'm supposed to think that way about the rock crawlers, why would I cooperate with them at all? Why are you?"  
  
"Because I'm not spending the rest of my life in this cage," Keith snarled. "Once we're back out in the open ocean, we can talk to our brothers and sisters in the sky and work out the rest."  
  
Lance tilted his head, his ears perking with interest. "What's the rest?"  
  
Keith shook his head. "I can't tell you. You may slip up and babble to the rock crawlers."  
  
Lance pouted. "What if I promise not to?"  
  
" _No,_ Lance." Keith caught Lance's wrists in his hands and pulled him close, wrapping his tail around Lance's. "Do you trust me?"  
  
"Always," Lance said quietly.  
  
"Trust me when I say this is best for both of us. For _you._ We won't be in here forever. We won't be where rock crawlers can find us either. All right?"  
  
"All right," Lance said, putting his face against Keith's shoulder. He nibbled Keith's collarbone. "Have me?"  
  
"I will, later," Keith promised, wrapping his arms around Lance and holding him tight. "For now, keep working with Hunk. But be mindful what you tell him. Okay? I've got something I need to figure out with Shiro."  
  
"Okay."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which the anemoi visit the nereids in Homebay and decide to work with the humans.

"Mako sharks. Nereids eat mako sharks."  
  
Shiro shrugged at Hunk. "It's one of the many things they eat. Red made it sound like a treat. Something they don't hunt often, so it's special when they do. I know we're breeding them in one of the seventh-floor tanks."  
  
"You're telling me that nereids eat apex predators. That makes _them_ apex predators."  
  
"Right," Shiro said. "Is this hard to understand?"  
  
Hunk shook his head. "No, just another thing to add to the nightmare fodder. Tell me what day we're giving them a shark so I can make sure to stay in the lab that day?"  
  
Shiro laughed softly. "Noted. I don't think I particularly want to watch it either."  
  
The two men were in the lab, working on data analysis. Pidge and Matt were in Homebay practicing speech with Blue, and Sam was meeting with Griffin's team, recently back from their field research off the coast of Cuba. Hunk watched his tablet do most of the work and sighed. He got up and stretched, glancing at the tank monitors. Red was napping in the kelp forest - or at least resting, from what Hunk could see. Blue was up on the beach with the Holt siblings.  
  
"Hey, Shiro?"  
  
Shiro didn't look up from his tablet. "Hmm?"  
  
"When you found Red, did he have anything on him? I've seen pictures of nereids with jewelry and pouches and things that look like baldrics and sword belts and stuff. For weapons or tools or whatever. Sam said Blue had on jewelry when they found him."  
  
"I'm more impressed you know that a baldric and a sword belt are different things," Shiro said, looking up and grinning at Hunk. "Yeah, he did. A lot which made me think he was highly ranked in his pod. Bracelets, a necklace, an impressive _baldric_."  
  
"Listen, when you play DnD almost every weekend for six years, you learn these things," Hunk said with a laugh.  
  
"Oh man, I haven't done a campaign in years."  
  
Hunk looked surprised. "You play?"  
  
"Did. With my twin, Ryou. He always got on my case because I played paladin every single time."  
  
"I didn't know you were a twin."  
  
Shiro shrugged. "We don't talk much anymore. Something about me wanting to spend my life trying to save what can't be saved is a waste."  
  
Hunk set down his tablet. "His loss."  
  
"Yeah, well." Shiro smiled, albeit sadly. "Anyway, so I've got some pictures of the nereids when we found them-"  
  
Before Shiro could continue, Sam burst into the lab, faintly breathless. "Where are Matt and Katie?"  
  
"In Homebay," Hunk said, raising an eyebrow. "Uh, what's going on?"  
  
"Come with me," Sam said, not waiting to see if they would follow. Hunk and Shiro exchanged looks and hurried after him.  
  
*  
  
Several hours later, the field team and the lab team were assembled in the meeting room. Brief introductions were made, and Kinkade had a map up on the holodisplay.  
  
"With what information we have about the anemoi, they'll likely be here within the week," Kinkade said as an animated path shot across the map from Cuba to Arizona. "Assuming that the whole cast will travel together. We assume that it takes some time to gather a group of that size."  
  
"How big is a cast of anemoi?" Hunk asked.  
  
"Between twenty and thirty, usually. The big group that used to be up in the Yukon I think were close to a hundred," Rizavi supplied helpfully. "I uh, studied them a lot in college before I decided I wanted to work with the slightly less violent nereids."  
  
"Good that someone here knows about them. What should we expect?" Shiro asked.  
  
Kinkade looked up at the map. "They know you've got two of them here. They'll probably want to see them."  
  
Pidge looked shocked. "We can't just let them in here, can we?"  
  
"I wouldn't say no to them," Griffin said quietly.  
  
"We'll reconvene tomorrow to figure it out," Sam said, the display changing to one of the tank cameras. Red was on the screen pulling up bits of kelp and shredding them in his teeth. "Until then, we need to go about our duties normally." Sam paused. "What is he doing?"  
  
"He's making something," Pidge said as she watched him. "He's got a whole bunch of that stuff drying on the flat rocks."  
  
"Cordage," Kinkade suggested. "Fibers to make into something bigger. Bullwhip kelp is tough."  
  
"I think that's the same material Blue's jewelry was made out of," Shiro said. "Huh. Think he's making something for Blue?"  
  
"Maybe," Sam said. "Meeting tomorrow at 0800. Shiro, we need to talk about you wanting to dump a mako shark into their tank."  
  
"Oh, right. About that..."  
  
*  
  
A little over a week had passed, and there were no signs of the anemoi near the Garrison.  
  
Hunk had allowed himself to relax about it. He was in the middle of studying his notes when he heard Matt yelling from across the lab.  
  
"The anemoi are here!"  
  
He wasn't the only one who looked up. Shiro and Pidge were also staring at him.  
  
Matt glanced at the others, and waved a hand at them, as he pointed at the familiar orange holodisplay. He was on a call. "I see. Well, I suppose we should make arrangements."  
  
"Anemoi?" Pidge darted out from her cubicle to jog over to Matt's desk. "Where are they? Do we let them in?"  
  
"Calm down," Matt said as he dimmed the phone display. "Two of them about gave Iverson a heart attack. He was outside for lunch, and they just, uh, landed and demanded to know where we had them."  
  
"They're still here?" Hunk asked warily. He'd seen an anemoi up close, saw the venom dripping from their fangs and their talons that could leave gashes in steel.  
  
Matt nodded. "Dad's trying to work with them. They're outside, no worries."  
  
"I'm worried for Sam," Hunk admitted.  
  
Matt smiled. "He'll be okay. Rizavi's with him. She'll act if she needs to."  
  
Pidge's expression fell as she realized the encounter may not be today after all, and Matt ruffled her hair. "Go back to your work."  
  
Not that any of them worked. Hunk glanced over at one of the tank cam displays and turned away quickly. Ever since Shiro had told them that the nereids mated frequently, it seemed like he was always catching them in the act, at least on the cameras. It felt intrusive to watch, so he tried to focus on his notes.  
  
Fortunately, they didn't have long to wait, because Sam was hurrying back into the lab and he was accompanied by two anemoi; a male with reddish hair and a rather friendly expression - at least for such a fierce species, and a female with a steely gaze and silver hair that she had bound up.  
  
The anemoi were rather larger than humans like the nereids were. They looked more humanoid than the sea-dwelling species did, maybe because they had legs as well as arms, along with their giant wings, though both of them had their wings folded tightly against them at the moment. They wore clothing, usually simple garments that were more for staving off the cold of the upper atmosphere than any pretense of modesty.  
  
"Uh, the tanks are through here," Sam said as calmly as he could. "This is the research team working to help them."  
  
Matt, as much as he had respect for the other species of Earth, wasn't going to let them cow him. "Matt Holt. A pleasure to meet you both."  
  
"You will take us to the _ukaon-khyrd_ ," the female said, and Hunk could see her elongated canines as she spoke. "We are here for them."  
  
"Allura, a moment," the male said, putting a hand that ended in sharp talons on her arm. "Mattholt, I am Coran. This is Allura. We represent the Alteans of the Arus Cast."  
  
Matt tilted his head slightly. "Alteans?"  
  
"You call us anemoi, after one of your ancient myths," Coran explained. "We don't call ourselves that. Where are the _ukaon-khyrd_?"  
  
"The...oh, the nereids," Hunk said. "Is that what they're called?"  
  
Coran nodded. " _Ukaon-khyrd._ You call them nereids? Interesting. Another ancient myth. From the same culture."  
  
"You know Greek mythology?" Pidge asked, surprised.  
  
"We were there when those myths were formed," Allura said, her voice hard as the steel in her eyes. "Bring us to them. Now."  
  
There was no time for pleasantries, and Hunk didn't pay attention to the protests he heard from the others. He hit a button on a control panel, and the inner doors leading to the tanks and Homebay opened behind the biologists' workstation. "This way," Hunk said, gesturing to them.  
  
"Hunk, what are you doing?" Pidge protested, grabbing at his arm as he started walking towards the doors.  
  
"What they asked," Hunk said. "They're not gonna kill them."  
  
"We will not harm them," Allura agreed firmly.  
  
No one seemed to want to argue with that. Only Pidge and Shiro followed after Hunk and the two anemoi in silence. Sam and Matt decided it was better to keep the interaction to a minimum, so as not to overwhelm anyone - including themselves. Aside from the padding of shoes and the sharp taps of claws on the floor, they were silent as they headed down the hall to the doors that led to Homebay.  
  
Pidge was still clinging to Hunk's arm as he opened the doors, only letting go as she moved away from them to let the anemoi through. Allura paid no mind to the humans, though Coran made a motion similar to a bow to them. "Our gratitude," he said. "We've been missing their song for several turns of the moon now. The one called Kinkade showed us where you were."  
  
Allura was heading down to the water alone, her wings expanding and spreading out, not in flight, but in a display perhaps. Coran followed after her, the humans trailing behind, keeping their distance.  
  
And covered their ears as they heard the booming piercing noises starting underwater as the nereids leaped out of the water.  
  
  
  
"Keith, Lance!" Allura's steely gaze grew soft as the two of them swam up to her. She was about waist-deep in the water, not minding her wings getting waterlogged. "I'm sorry it took us so long to find you."  
  
"The metal and glass make the song dull," Lance said, almost shyly as he looked at Allura. "I'm sorry."  
  
"For what?" Allura asked, reaching out to touch Lance's cheek.  
  
"I thought you were gone. I couldn't hear you anymore." He ducked beneath the water in his embarrassment.  
  
"Your song reached me last night," Keith said, and he frowned a little. "Lance was in the poison longer than I was. I think it penetrated him further."  
  
Coran had joined them and was looking at Lance as he rolled over in the water, not missing the scent coming off of Lance's slit when it was above the surface. He tilted his head a little as Lance emerged again. "Are you two trying to pup in here?"  
  
"No," Keith said, as Lance nuzzled up to Allura for more of her gentle touches. "It's just for comfort."  
  
"The sky here is oppressive," Allura said, looking up at the domed sky above as she stroked Lance's hair. "It sinks in on you." She turned her gaze onto Lance knelt in the water, so they were eye level. She studied his face. "How long before the rock crawlers found you after you got injured?"  
  
"Two moons and a half turn," Lance said. "The water was warm. It didn't taste too bad. I was tired. I thought it was from blood loss."  
  
"Poisoned," Coran said, shaking his head with a sigh. "What kelp do they have here?"  
  
"The wrong kind," Keith said. "Do you hear any songs in the oceans?"  
  
"It has been a half-turn since the last song was heard," Allura said, straightening up.  
  
Lance's eyes widened. "No."  
  
"We are still searching. Our brothers and sisters are calling for you and yours," Coran said reassuringly.  
  
"I know my pod is gone," Keith said quietly. "I was the last."  
  
"Do you hear our song?" Lance asked pleadingly, looking between Allura and Coran. "Did they escape the poison?"  
  
Allura tried to soften the blow as best she could, keeping her voice gentle. "I'm sorry, Lance. We found their bones and jewelry washed up on the shores of nearby beaches."  
  
Lance uttered a long, wailing cry that every single person within earshot understood, including the humans who were still on the beach, rather clueless as to what else was going between the two apparently disparate species.  
  
He dove under the water, and no one gave him chase, though Keith was about to. Coran grabbed his arm and shook his head. "Let him accept it first."  
  
"He was holding on to that," Keith said, baring his teeth, but not at either of the Alteans. "I think the belief they were waiting for him is why he didn't die in the shallows."  
  
"How badly was he hurt?" Allura asked. "What was it?"  
  
"A rock crawler boat. Propeller sliced through his tail and fins. The poison probably got in through the wound too."  
  
"His hearing is very dulled if he couldn't hear us earlier," Allura said, pursing her lips. "His song is still clear and beautiful at least. Perhaps a fog in the head that will clear once we can remove the poison from him."  
  
Keith made a deep growl in his chest. "What can flush it out?"  
  
"My scouts are searching this very moment for something," Allura said. "I'll need some of Lance's blood to take with me. Will you allow it?"  
  
Keith nodded. "Because it's you, I will."  
  
  
  
On the beach, the humans were watching and listening to the incomprehensible sounds of the anemoi and nereids. Hunk backed up a few steps as the male approached them.  
  
"You are Hunk, Shiro, and Pidge?" Coran asked as he looked between the three, pointing at them correctly as he said their names.  
  
"Yes," Shiro said warily. "You speak the same language as the nereids, I take it."  
  
"The song is universal," Coran said with a nod. "You knew it once, too. Keith tells us that you are trying to find them a home."  
  
Shiro looked at Coran blankly. "Keith?"  
  
"Oh. The bigger one," Coran explained. "Do you not call them by name?"  
  
"We just call them Blue and Red," Pidge said. "Someone isn't creative with names," she added, looking at Shiro.  
  
"Keith, huh," Hunk said. "That's a human name too, though I suppose it's different for nereids. Uh. Oo-kye...oo-kye-on...how do you say that?"  
  
"Oo-kye-on keer-d?" Pidge sounded it out.  
  
Coran chuckled. "Close enough." He fanned his wings behind him to shake off drops of water. "Keith, yes. The larger one. The other one is... _Buynde-D'syk_. Too young to have a full name yet. Translates roughly to something like a pike or a lance. Assuming you know what those are?"  
  
"Yeah, we know what those are," Pidge said with a nod. "That's better than Blue and Red. Okay. Lance will work. Keith is better than Red. Yes, we're trying to find them a home."  
  
"The ocean will take a long time to heal," Coran said, as he hopped lightly over to the flat rocks and examined the kelp Keith had been shredding. "Keeping them here long term would be the only way for them to survive."  
  
Shiro frowned. "Keeping them here long term would be cruel."  
  
"I'm glad you think that," Allura said as she approached the beach. The nereids had both disappeared beneath the water. "We shall get along well, then. Lance - yes, I overheard you - is poisoned and requires treatment. Keith will kill you before he allows you to try. So do not bother."  
  
"Uh. Noted," Hunk said, stepping further away from the anemoi, watching Allura as she shook the water from her wings. "Definitely do not want to get on his bad side."  
  
"We will find his treatment," Allura, eyeing Shiro and stopping him before he could speak. "You know too little to be of help here. Your cage is impressive, but you know next to nothing about the inhabitants. I do not say this to shame you, I am simply stating a fact."  
  
Hunk nodded. "I agree. We know very little. That's why we're trying to learn."  
  
Allura regarded Hunk thoughtfully, then spoke to Pidge. "I'm told you are learning the ancient language."  
  
"I'm trying to," Pidge said. "It's hard to imitate the sounds."  
  
"We will help you learn," Allura was firm.  
  
Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Help her?"  
  
"All of you," Allura agreed. "Why else would we be here? You are helping our brethren. We will help you. If we did not wish to help you, you would all be dead."  
  
Coran nodded in agreement, like she was stating the time of day or that it was sunny outside.  
  
"Oookay," Hunk gulped. "So again, glad we're not on the list for immediate death, but what's the plan long term, if the oceans are still healing?"  
  
"We will tell you when it's time," Allura said. "For now, we must make an arrangement with your leaders as to how we shall have access to this cage. We can't stay here."  
  
"Right," Shiro nodded. "Makes sense. I'll get them together and we'll figure it out. Today."  
  
"Yes, before the sun sets," Coran said with a nod. "We'll stay here until you gather your leaders."  
  
"Sounds good. C'mon, Hunk, Pidge. Let's go gather everyone up."  
  
"Is...is it okay for you to stay here?" Pidge asked carefully.  
  
"We will not fly in here," Allura assured her. "We wish to stay close to our brethren for now."  
  
"Okay. Um. We'll be back!" she said and turned to catch up with Shiro and Hunk.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which the nereids have a feast, Shiro establishes his trustworthiness, and Lance gets to say "I told you so!" 
> 
> And we open up to possibilities beyond earth...
> 
> This chapter contains some semi graphic depictions of sentient creatures catching and killing an apex predator. Please be mindful of the tags!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Nikko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kat_mandoo) drew some [art](https://twitter.com/nikkochino/status/1302375609369325571) of the boys! Thank you so much! They look just how I picture them in my head, they look AMAZING! <3

A sense of urgency meant different things to creatures that lived for thousands of years versus those who lived maybe a hundred if they were lucky. Hunk pointed this out to a rather impatient Pidge several weeks after the anemoi had visited the lab.  
  
"Allura said Lance was poisoned. And she wanted access to the tanks. And yet...there's no urgency. What if Lance is dying?"  
  
"He's been living with it for at least four or five months. Maybe longer," Hunk reasoned patiently. "I think if he were dying, we'd probably have a much more violent Keith than we do now."  
  
"Maybe," Pidge said with a sigh. "I guess I just expected to see the anemoi more frequently or something. Ya know, they said they would help us."  
  
"They've come a few nights. Well, Allura has. Coran, once," Matt said as he walked into the lab. He set down a bag of what appeared to be junk food. "I think they might be nocturnal."  
  
"Or they've taught themselves to be nocturnal, because humans aren't," Hunk mused. "They used to be hunted, ya know. Wings were used as trophies. Not that they didn't fight back, but..." he trailed off, and frowned. "Ugh, I gotta stop getting into these funks. What'd you bring?"  
  
Matt smiled and pulled out several brightly colored packages. "Carbs, mostly. And sodium. And sugar. Nothing remotely healthy."  
  
"Works for me," Pidge grinned. "Are you guys gonna watch them with the shark?"  
  
Hunk shook his head as he skimmed a readout from a water test. "Nope. I dunno why Shiro was so insistent on it either, but if it makes the nereids happy."  
  
"I think I'll pass too," Matt said, making a face. He tossed a package at Pidge. "Are you seriously gonna go watch them?"  
  
Pidge tore open the wrapper and pulled out a stick of pocky. "Yeah, why not? As Hunk's always saying, they're not human. It'd be like watching dolphins or sharks hunt, right?"  
  
"Not human, but they _are_ sentient," Hunk said. "We talk to them on a regular basis. I'll stay here."  
  
  
In the end, Pidge was the only one who watched the nereids hunt their prey. It was a strangely horrifying and fascinating experience at the same time. The shark (a mako on the smallish side) was let loose into the tank. It took mere minutes, the nereids surrounding the shark, both of them working in unison to hunt their prey. Lance’s hit stunned it; Keith’s killed it. They tore into it using their teeth and claws, though Pidge couldn’t make out what they were doing through the mist of red spreading through the water. When the water cleared, she saw that they’d taken their prey off. Probably to the kelp forest or the underwater cave.  
  
She watched the rest on the video feeds up in the lab. Hunk's interest got the better of him when Pidge pointed out how they were sorting the shark teeth. "For tools, I'll bet," he said thoughtfully. "Did they eat the whole thing?"  
  
"Most of it, from what I can tell," Pidge said. "Look, their bellies are distended."  
  
"They look like they're in a food coma almost," Hunk said, shaking his head. "I bet they're in a great mood for the next few days."  
  
The nereids were rather sluggish the days following their feast. Lance yawned a lot and spent most of his time lounging on the beach with Pidge and Matt trilling and signing to them. Pidge was still rather better at speaking the language, but Matt was making strides in the translation database.  
  
Keith only surfaced occasionally, usually watching Lance and the Holts, and disappearing beneath the waves after several minutes.  
  
*  
  
A week or so later - when the nereids were back to feeding on fish and plenty alert again - Shiro brought a waterproof tablet out to Keith to look at.  
  
"It's not quite habitable yet, but these are pictures of an area in the Pacific that are showing promise," Shiro said. The pictures were not of the ocean, but the night sky above it.  
  
Keith frowned as he looked at the images. "Shows promise, but it's still poisoned," he said, flipping back and forth through the pictures, being careful of his claws. "That's near where you found me."  
  
"Near...ish?" Shiro offered. "By five hundred miles or so. Is it not a good place?"  
  
"The hunting is sparse there for many turns of the moon. But then, if Lance and I are the only two left, it wouldn't matter," Keith said and handed the tablet back to Shiro. He studied him for a moment. "You're very strange, Shiro."  
  
Shiro set the tablet down next to him. "Not the first time I've been told that, but why do you say so?"  
  
"I injured you-" Keith gestured at the prosthetic arm. "-and yet you're not afraid of me. You brought me to this false ocean, and yet you want to break me out."  
  
Shiro smiled a bit sadly. "Sometimes people deserve another chance. As far as being here goes...well you would've died otherwise."  
  
Keith nodded. "You saved me despite the fact that I almost killed you. Your instincts don't say 'remove the threat or run away from it?'"  
  
"I don't see you as a threat," Shiro said quietly.  
  
"Evidently not," Keith said. He grabbed Shiro and pulled him under the water with him, not unlike the way Lance had done with Hunk at their first meeting. Shiro tried not to panic. He wasn't sure what Keith was doing, but he kept himself calm as Keith pulled him down to the sandy ocean floor, trying to ignore the bubbles rushing from his nose as he clamped his mouth closed. Keith knew how to posture and be threatening - this was not it.  
  
He hoped.  
  
Shiro couldn't see anything besides blurred colors and shapes. The salt in the water forced him to shut his eyes tight against the burn. He tried to pull away from Keith, to kick back to the surface. He felt them both rushing upwards and took several deep breaths as soon as they surfaced, grateful for the oxygen. Keith set him on the flat rocks and backed away from him, his expression neutral.  
  
"Still don't see me as a threat?"  
  
Shiro breathed deeply a few more times before answering. "No."  
  
Keith snorted. "Very strange. I suppose that's why Lance likes you, though. You're not scared of us."  
  
"I don't think any of them are scared of Lance," Shiro offered as he wiped his eyes, trying to blink away the burning sensation.  
  
"You don't see much," Keith said as he joined Shiro on the rock. "Stop rubbing. Close your eyes and hold still." Shiro did, a little startled when he felt Keith holding his face with his hands. There was a strange sensation of something velvety soft brushing against his eyelids.  
  
"Open your eyes," Keith commanded. Shiro did and found the burning had stopped, though his eyes were watering plenty. Keith was still cupping his face; he was staring into Shiro's eyes studying them. After a few seconds, he smiled as though satisfied with his work and let go of his face.  
  
He glanced over where Lance was playfully splashing Hunk and the Holts down on the other end of the beach. Keith nodded towards the group. "Notice how they tense up, how they shrink away slightly. They probably don't even realize it. Friendly does not automatically mean safe. They see Lance for what he is. They see me for what I am." He looked at Shiro again. "Why don't you?"  
  
"I see you for what you are," Shiro said. "I see the anemoi for what they are, too. I told the others that I have a healthy respect for you and them. I understand better than anyone how strong you are and how easily you could just drown me or rip my other limbs off. Does that mean you want me to live in fear of you? Of them? Because I'm not going to."  
  
Keith was silent for a moment. "You sound like your ancestors. Before you lost the ability to hear the song. Lance was right."  
  
Shiro looked puzzled. "What?"  
  
Keith uttered a single piercing note, and Lance abruptly left Hunk and Pidge and zipped under the water over to Shiro and Keith. He joined them on the rock, being careful not to sit on the tablet, and looked at them both curiously.  
  
"Shiro know song?" Lance asked.  
  
"No, not yet," Keith said. "But you were right about him."  
  
Lance looked pleased and beamed at Shiro, displaying his sharp teeth. "Lance know Shiro has song inside. Keith try scare Shiro?"  
  
"Tried and failed," Keith said with an amused snort.  
  
"I'm gonna go ahead and stop you both, because I don't really know what you're talking about, but you both seem happy about it. Which I'll consider a win. Is this something that might go better through translation with Matt?"  
  
"Not really," Keith said. "But tomorrow at the highest point of the moon, Allura will be here. Are you allowed to be here then?"  
  
Shiro was utterly confused at this point, but he nodded. "Sure, I can."  
  
"You're still very strange, Shiro. Why anyone would give someone a third chance is something I don't comprehend."  
  
"Shiro has song," Lance said proudly, and affectionately rubbed his cheek against Shiro's. "Shiro sees beneath."  
  
"The Alteans may be able to explain all this," Keith said, patting Shiro on the shoulder gently. "Better than I can, anyway." He slipped off the rock and shot off beneath the water, leaving Shiro and Lance alone.  
  
Shiro cleared his throat and tried to sign and trill to Lance. _"What do you mean by the song?"_  
  
_"The old language. The song we all sang before we separated,"_ Lance said slowly, watching Shiro to see how much he understood. At his confusion, Lance sighed quietly. "Shiro sees. Beneath. Inside."  
  
Shiro desperately wanted to understand what Lance was trying to tell him, so he nodded, trying to get him to continue. "I see...more than what's on the surface?"  
  
"Human words hard. One word many meaning." Lance glanced at the tablet he moved and picked it up. He held it to Shiro. "Picture?" Shiro took it and brought up the same picture of the starry sky he showed Keith earlier. He wordlessly handed it to Lance. Lance pointed at the stars. "Same song. Here." He swiped on the tablet until he was looking at a picture of some distant islands on the ocean's horizon. "Here." Lance pointed at the islands with a claw. "And here." He pointed at the ocean. "Shiro song also," he pointed at Shiro, pressing a clawed finger to his chest over his heart. "Same."  
  
Shiro bit his lip. Lance looked so hopeful; it kind of was adorable, really. "I'm gonna try, Lance. I may get it wrong. You're saying I can understand the language that the people of the sky and the ocean speak? Potentially. It's buried in me somewhere?"  
  
Lance made a happy sound that almost deafened Shiro. He swiped back to the picture of the stars. "Here."  
  
Shiro shook his head. "I don't understand that part."  
  
Lance's smile faltered as he handed the tablet back to Shiro. "Lance mess up," he said. "Shiro know song." He rubbed his cheek against Shiro's again and dove into the water. Shiro wasn't sure what had just happened as he got up and headed over to the rest of the scientists.  
  
*  
  
Allura watched Coran as he dipped a taloned finger into a bowl of crushed up wildflowers. He dropped the paste into one of the blood samples. He waited a few moments and then sniffed the mixture, shaking his head. "Not quite. Close. Something similar to this, perhaps."  
  
"If we could just get the proper cure from the ocean," Allura said with a sigh. "It seems strange to treat the _ukaon-khyrd_ with plants that live in the open air."  
  
"You'd rather leave it to the rock crawlers to try their hand at it?" Coran asked curiously. "I must admit, for all their faults, they have come up with some interesting mixtures to stamp out their diseases."  
  
"Most of the diseases they caused unto themselves." Allura frowned. "That said, perhaps it would not hurt to try. I am going tonight at the highest moon. I will talk to Keith about it."  
  
"Luka says Keith's having the one known as Shiro meet with you too," Coran said. "She was flying over the Garrison earlier and got his report."  
  
"The one known as Shiro." Allura closed her eyes, trying to picture him. "Ah. The one Lance is fond of. I hope for Lance's sake he doesn't prove to be an issue."  
  
"You've not had to dispatch any of them yet," Coran said cheerfully. "Shall I come with you?"  
  
Allura shook her head. "No, he'll be on edge enough with just me there. If he proves harmless, you will come with me the following visit."  
  
She left the caves and found a tree to perch in. Only the scent of rock and thin desert grass could be detected nearby. No threats. She allowed herself to nap, only waking when the sky was dark, and the stars were out. The moon was rising higher in the sky. She listened to the wind for several minutes and took flight, heading to the Garrison. It was an hour or so flight, pleasant and cooling, and she almost regretted when she arrived at the Garrison. She would take her time to enjoy the calm of night on her way back to the caves.  
  
The rock crawlers had fitted one of the plates in the domed sky above the nereid tank with a handle and hinges so it could be opened like a door. Allura slipped through it, carefully closing it behind her and zooming down to the beach, landing gently on the rocks and sand. She was a bit early. She glanced up and saw the false sky's moon was in the proper position as the real one. It almost looked real from the ground. Almost, but not quite. She turned sharply when she heard the squeal of metal as a door opened behind her, relaxing her stance. It was just the one called Shiro, dressed in a wetsuit.  
  
"Good evening," Shiro said as he approached her. "Am I late?"  
  
"No," Allura said. "I am early. Did you create this sky?"  
  
Shiro glanced up and shook his head. "No, a team of engineers and programmers did."  
  
"The timing is almost perfect," Allura observed. "You really have tried to make this like home for the _ukaon-khyrd._ "  
  
"We tried, but they can't stay here forever," Shiro agreed. "I've said that to you before."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You also said you would help us. All of us," Shiro said carefully. "Can you update me on what's going on? We haven't seen you in a while."  
  
"Right now, we are focusing on a cure for Lance's poison, and my cast is stocking up on food," Allura said. "Once we do that, we will move on to the next step."  
  
Shiro decided not to argue it, and nodded, letting his eyes adjust to the dark. "If we can help with purging the poison from Lance's system, you know we will. With permission, of course."  
  
Before Allura could answer, Keith surfaced and made two sharp whistles, and beached himself on one of the rocks, getting himself comfortable. Allura and Shiro walked over to him, leaving plenty of room for Lance to join them. Allura crouched down next to Keith and spoke in her own language, rapid screeches and hissing sounds, Keith responding with his trills and whistles and hand motions. Shiro had no idea what they were saying, of course, though as soon as his focus went to Lance splashing happily in the water, he could _almost_ grasp the gist of it. Lance joined them on the rock, beaming at Allura and then Shiro, rapidly signing and trilling.  
  
Keith sounded annoyed and Allura was frowning at Lance.  
  
"Uh. Whatever Lance did, he didn't really do it?" Shiro said, taking a stab in the dark.  
  
"See? See? Shiro have song," Lance said happily as Allura and Keith exchanged looks. "Understand?"  
  
"Not really," Shiro admitted. "I kind of got the meaning though. Lance let something slip?"  
  
"He does have the under hearing," Allura said, her eyebrows going up. "And yes, he did. Lance, Keith told you _not_ to share so much, did he not?"  
  
Lance looked abashed, the spines on his back flattening in embarrassment. "Shiro have song."  
  
"That doesn't mean you can tell him everything," Keith said sternly. He glanced at Shiro. "Though I've seen you're not the type who shares more than what is necessary."  
  
"I'm gonna have to say I don't really know what you all are talking about, except that you're upset with Lance because you think he told me something he shouldn't," Shiro said firmly. "Whatever it is you think I have, _I don't know what it is_. Though you're right, I don't typically share things told to me in confidence."  
  
Keith, Allura, and Lance spoke in rapid succession again, though Shiro grasped almost none of it as he tried to follow along. Allura and Keith nodded at each other, and Lance looked at Shiro hopefully, patting him on the arm. "Shiro sit?"  
  
"You may want to. We've decided you need to know anyway," Keith said.  
  
Shiro sat down, feeling both thrilled and bewildered. "Sure, what's going on?"  
  
Allura's eyes glowed slightly as she focused on Shiro. "First, we need to establish some things..."


End file.
